Bragi: Poetry, Music, Eloquence, Performance Arts (lingobard) wrote in history_dot_com, @ 2012-09-20 16:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | ~bragi, ~idun |
They All Fall Down [Early Asgard: The end of the friendship era] (Tag:Idun)
The axe sliced through the air where Bragi's head was a split second ago. Idun's brother nearly toppled from the momentum, but caught himself in the last second. He grinned, but Bragi didn't see it. Bragi wasn't looking at his face. He couldn't afford to blink or focus on any one thing for more than a fraction of a second. He saw the arms swinging the axe. Left. Go the other way. The advancing legs. Right. Go the other way. Tavern wall. His shoes. Alley. Dirt. Faces. Shoulder. Arm. Axe. Sidestep. Axe. Duck. Axe. Move. Fist. Run. Duck. Don't crash.
How many minutes Bragi could keep dodging exactly matched how many minutes he had left to live. Bragi intended to live for as long as possible. Optimistically, he had maybe five minutes left.
The axe came from the left. He didn't see it that time, but he heard it and sidestepped out of the way right on time. Almost. A searing pain shot up Bragi's arm where the axe grazed. Blood soaked into his sleeve then dripped on the ground. Bragi didn't have time to wince, or cry out. He kept moving. His arm was on fire. His muscles grew wearier. Idun's brother grew angrier.
Maybe he'd been too optimistic.
The knife lay abandoned on the ground near one of the spectator's boots. It had felt awkward in Bragi's hand, and Idun's brother had knocked it away before that even registered. In the past ten seconds, Bragi had run over it three times. Four. If he bent down, Idun's brother would kill him before Bragi could pick it up. It wasn't Bragi's, but a stranger had been kind. The crowd's faces blurred together or came at him in fractions. When he got too close to the line, they pushed him back. They were mostly drowned out by the rushing of his blood, but in between the axe strokes, occasionally Bragi could hear them. Some shouted, but they were quieter than the typical duel onlooking crowd. It wasn't a real duel. They already knew the winner before the fight started. It almost took the fun right out of it.
His legs shook. He couldn't blink. His eyes begged to. His breath was more rapid than it had ever been. Bragi imagined Idun throwing her things together with her best frenzied energy. She grabbed it and ran out the backdoor to the woods. She knew the woods better than her brother. She could climb better than her brother. Her brother wouldn't be able to find her.
Ten minutes talking. Ten minutes preparing. Six minutes fighting. Three minutes left. Twenty nine minutes. She could escape in twenty nine. Bragi ducked again. He'd go for thirty.
Suddenly, the axe clattered to the ground. Bragi stared at it, stunned for a split second, then his eyes went to Idun's brother. Idori wasn't looking at Bragi anymore. He had turned to face someone standing in the crowd. Bragi's eyes followed his opponent's to the woman, and Bragi's rapidly beating heart caught in his throat and stopped. For a second, Bragi couldn't breath.
Idun.